A collection of deliberately placed letters into the formation of words to reveal the ramblings of those who are sporadically inspired to share what they know and care about.

Thursday, November 24, 2011

To read or not to read.....

Those that know me know that I’m not a reader and never have been. Was quite the procedure in high school doing book reports on books I hadn’t read. (Sorry Mr. D) Let me say; I do not condone the following process, it’s what I did. It’s not right, nor would I suggest or recommend it. PLEASE DO NOT TRY THIS AT HOME! I would read the first few pages, the last few pages, the intro by the author and then the back cover. At that point I would have enough information for a full-fledged book report.
Though I am a fan of words, I am not a fan of reading books. Short attention span, too laborious, process of turning pages wasn’t technological enough for me; whatever the reason, I was never into it.

I did, however, start (and actually finish) a book recently. The book was thrust upon me by an acquaintance. It was thick, many pages. It was interesting. I got into the story and wanted to keep reading, so I did. After finishing that one and expressing my enjoyment at the whole ‘process’, my friend, gave me another book. I was giddy, 2 books?!?! Cue the choir! Here I was with my SECOND book. Look out Oprah’s Book Club!

Sadly….book #2 still sits on the shelf, waiting to be opened. Attention friend who gave me the book months ago: I will be returning it shortly. It sitting there does not inspire me in any way to crack it open and read it.

My daughter, on the other hand, LOVES books, always has. She enjoys reading and I will completely support her in that. She reads all styles of books and enjoys it. She will rather sit and read than watch a TV show. I think that is fantastic. I hope she doesn’t outgrow that, that it is with her through life and that she will read the books that I didn’t.
Some say, my favourite books are the ones with pictures of things with prices underneath. Ha! That is probably true, or at least it probably WAS true. But I don’t even spend time on those anymore. It is all about the internet and the screen and the web and pages and sites and Googling and cookies and downloads and uploads and…..

I don’t even go through the Sears catalogue anymore, I go to the site, search for what I’m interested in, compare several items, read reviews and then order the one I want. There is SO much information available on the great scape of the web that it can be overwhelming, confusing and sometimes even dangerous (but that rambling is for another day). I would much rather sift through 4 hours of blog posts and You Tube crafting videos and podcasts than flip pages. Even my magazine subscriptions are electronic now. The iPad makes a fantastic magazine reader, by the way. The shiny glass and perfect pictures and ‘special features’ that magazine publishers throw in to entertain you. Some even put in sound effects and links to things that go with the particular article. So that if you see something interesting you can click on it and BOOM, you’re navigated quickly and efficiently to the site that goes with it. They even have an option so you have to ‘flip the page’ as if it was a REAL magazine and it makes a page flipping noise when you do! Wow! A page flipping noise! Isn’t that fantastic?!?!

…lost focus there for a second.

I am in awe of those that read REAL books, with covers and pages. I admire anyone that can focus that long, repeatedly and get something out of it. Many of my friends are readers of books. I appreciate that about them. When they need my knowledge of info on the techy world, they appreciate me.

I suppose my success was in finishing the book I started. One doesn’t change overnight, or even after 30ish years (numbers here are actually larger than they appear). Sadly, one book does not a library make, but I hear libraries have computers in them now!

I hope you enjoyed the introduction to Lady J yesterday. She will be an asset to the bunch I’m sure.

Be sure to tune in tomorrow for another Diva introduction, Molly McIntyre will be sharing a bit about herself. I must say I am thrilled beyond words at my Divas and look forward to great things from them.

Tonight is the local Talent Show and my own personal Partridge Family are slated to perform. I'm very excited. My husband and daughter are very musically inclined. I too (only in the comfort of my vehicle with the windows up and the music blaring) am a singer. Just call me ....F Lo. Not quite the same ring to it. Ahhh well.